The inside line on motor sport and broadcasting.

Sky Sports has unveiled a blockbuster trailer ahead of the 2019 Formula One season, whilst also announcing their ‘best-ever offer’ for fans to watch the sport.

Fans who wish to subscribe to Sky’s services can add Sky Sports F1 to their television package for £10.00 a month. The deal, which is available throughout March, comes with a two-year price guarantee, but it is unknown as of writing whether Virgin Media customers can access the deal via their platform.

Including Sky’s mandatory basic Entertainment pack, it means that fans must pay a minimum of £32.00 a month to watch Sky Sports F1 with Sky in 2019. Sky’s press release does not explicitly reference new or existing subscribers, I assume all Sky customers can take up the deal.

Last year, the cheapest tier that Sky offered for Sky Sports F1 totalled £38.00 a month (£20.00 for the Entertainment pack back, plus £18.00 for one Sky Sports channel), so by entering a new contract with Sky, fans could see their payments reduce by £6.00 a month, or £72.00 across the whole year.

The big selling point of the Sky deal is ‘F1 for a tenner’, as it was back at the end of 2011 when Sky first joined the fray. As always the viewing figures for the first few races will give a clearer indicator as to whether Sky’s deal has worked.

Keep an eye on this site in March for a detailed summary of the different pricing options for viewing F1 in 2019.

Blockbuster trailer to kick start Sky’s F1 2019 promotion
In addition, the broadcaster has launched a blockbuster trailer highlighting Formula 1’s history over the years. In my opinion it is by far Sky’s best F1 trailer to date.

Pioneers pushed the boundaries.

Technology gave us speed.

Rivalries gave us drama.

Television brought us closer.

We gave it a home.

Here’s to a new chapter.

There are six segments to the film, taking the viewer through the generations, covering the sport’s biggest successes on track, from James Hunt, to Damon Hill and onto Sebastian Vettel. It is arguably one of the best television trailers ever produced for the sport, in my view, with a level of detail rarely seen elsewhere.

The trailer is extremely respectful to the individual eras, closely matching the reality at that point of time, making the viewer feel like they are in that moment. The last half of the promo focuses on Sky’s present-day activities, with a nod to their 2012 branding also present.

Understood to have cost around £750,000 to produce, Sky filmed the promo in Warner Bros. Studios at the end of January. Most importantly for me, it is a super cool trailer, executed perfectly.

The Chain in, Just Drive out?One of the biggest surprises though is the inclusion of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain as the soundtrack, more surprising considering the song has been synonymous with the BBC’s and Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage over the years.

It is unclear if The Chain is a permanent replacement for Alistair Griffin’s Just Drive, which has been Sky’s signature theme for Formula 1 since 2012. In my view it makes little sense to use The Chain for promotional material, only to revert to Just Drive for the main show itself. I understand it is also up in the air whether Channel 4 plan to continue using The Chain as part of their coverage this year as well.

The trailer features many of Sky’s F1 personnel on offer for the 2019 season, although key players Anthony Davidson and Ted Kravitz were both absent from the trailer. Further information on their status with the team is imminent. As previously revealed, Karun Chandhok and Jenson Button are both joining Sky for the upcoming season.

Sky UK and Ireland Chief Executive Officer Stephen van Rooyen said “Seven years ago we rewrote the rules and created a dedicated channel for F1, pushing the boundaries of sports broadcasting. Each year we challenge ourselves to go further and this year will be a whole new chapter.”

“We are extremely proud to partner with F1, honouring the history and traditions of this great sport, whilst also taking fans even closer to the track and share our excitement for the future.”

Lee, I and a few of my friends, so agree with you. I’d be happy to pay £15 a month via Now TV just to get F1 live. It’s the only thing on the Sky package I have any interest in, so why on earth would I want to pay £40+ a month, have a dish and Sky box installed and be tied into an 18 month contract. I know Sky now have an exclusive deal until 2025, but surely if Liberty can offer an F1 Pro service to countries with no contractual ties, they should insist Sky offer something similar. I believe the F1 Pro service is $12 a month (which includes all support races and practice sessions), so something around £15 a month seems more than generous.
Incidentally, I’m a big MotoGP fan, as well as Premiership Rugby and I pay just £9 a month for my BT Sports App to watch everything.

The £10 will include HD – as all Sky Sports channels are now HD as standard, i.e. you don’t need the £5 HD charge as well for Entertainment. For a new Sky customer, it means £22 as basic package, plus £10 = £32 a month.

It’s the same idea as what they did in 2012 with the (now) legacy HD pack. I’m still on that package and it’s due to go up to £48.50 in April. I’ve been waiting to recontract in the hope of an F1 offer, so I will recontract to this new offer asap.

A word of warning, for new customers, it may be £10 (really £32) a month now, but unlikely to be in 2024!!!

As mentioned by others I’d be quite happy pay £10 a month to stream the races on Now TV or equivalent, but I definitely won’t be paying £32 a month for them as part of a full Sky package. I don’t want a dish on the house or another box under the TV. We don’t need any other extra channels, we’re already more than covered for entertainment by terrestrial, netflix and prime. Can’t justify another £32 a month at all.

I’ll catch the late night C4 programmes when I can but most likely my F1 viewing will be reduced to watching the short highlights video on youtube, supplemented with reading the latest news on sites such as this and bbc sport.

Funny how things change, a few years back I wouldn’t dream of missing a live race and would plan our family life weeks ahead to ensure I could always be sat at the TV ready for the grid walk. My fanaticism has slowly decreased since sky came in to the point that I only caught 3 live races in 2018. Maybe that would of happened anyway, who knows.

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